The MRSA saga of commander Greg Schiano’s days won’t go away.

With Schiano relegated to part-time TV work, one of the three Tampa Bay players known to have contacted MRSA in 2013, Lawrence Tynes, has slapped the Bucs with a $35 million lawsuit for lost potential earnings and damages. (more…)

“I’m the only rock star around these parts, pal.”

Regular readers know Joe coined the phrase “rock star general manager” to describe former Bucs GM Mark Dominik.

He got that moniker for two reasons: When the Bucs were winning and pushing for the playoffs in 2010, virtually every national media outlet wanted to talk to Dominik. And he obliged. It was as if he was the rock star of the NFL the way folks wanted to rub elbows with him. (more…)

Lovie Smith thought ghostly, ghastly Michael Johnson was a double-digit sack guy.

Greg Schiano claimed Da’Quan Bowers was double-digit sackmaster.

Raheem Morris regretted not lobbying for his favorite double-digit sack machine. (more…)

“You better be ready.”

The NFL draft will begin in a little over three weeks. Damn, this reminds Joe of the old “Hot for Teacher” video Van Halen put out in the mid-1980s, when David Lee Roth held up an hourglass, stared into the camera and said, “Aw man, I think the clock is slow.”

(These idjits, they book their Tampa show on their 2015 tour on the first Sunday of the NFL season. Son. Of. A. … ) (more…)

Time is ticking on the Lovie Smith regime. That’s just NFL reality. (more…)

The Bucs worked out Penn State safety Adrian Amos.

Joe knows fans read this all the time: So-and-so worked out for (insert team name).

You read this so often this time of the year you get numb to it. Sort of like local meteorologists forecasting a hot Florida summer afternoon, or hearing Josh McCown turned the ball over. (more…)

Tampa Bay can’t just make Band-Aid moves on their offensive line, they must groom it for the long term and Jameis Winston’s rise to prominence.

Finding a replacement for Logan Mankins should be a priority. (more…)

Joe talked to Andy Reid, Steve Keim, Jason Licht and others about building an offensive line.

Developing a sound offensive line is getting harder and harder.

Gimmick college offenses haven’t prepared players. Better athletes are playing defensive line. Teams dump offensive coordinators every couple of years. And leaguewide impatience has taken its toll on a position that demands time on many fronts. (more…)

Sacks seem to be an issue.

Since the end of the college football season, the spreadsheeters over at ProFootballFocus.com have updated their Excel programs and tapped away at their keyboards inputing data to determine the best players in the 2015 NFL draft. (more…)

Herm Edwards talks about his friend Lovie Smith

Among NFL head coaches in Year 1 of their programs last year, Lovie Smith had a rough time.

Some, like Mike Zimmer, Mike Pettine and Bill O’Brien, managed to advance their franchises. (more…)

The Bucs seem pleased Jameis Winston is losing his pitching-motion-like football delivery

Of course, Jameis Winston haters threw all sorts of mean words at him when the Bucs won the Chase for Jameis with the worst record in the NFL.

One slur was “Leftwich.”

That came because Winston had somewhat baseball-like windup in his release. Understandable because Winston is also a pitcher, and a damned impressive one. (more…)

Caution: This is another in a long series about the offensive line of the Bucs. Naturally, it is not pleasant. Read at your own peril.

So as it stands, the rotten Tampa Bay offensive line is no better. Last seen, it was so frightening Freddie Krueger had an accident in his pants watching it. (more…)

Joe knows that not everyone had a chance to watch Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston throw. Not everyone could blow off work to watch his entire pro day on NFL Network last week.

Likewise, not everyone remembered to DVR the program. Or they had better things to do when the pro day was rebroadcast. That is why Joe has your back. (more…)

The Bucs’ new cornerback talks about his free agency experience

The journey into free agency is different for every player.

The range of emotions can be great. (more…)

Mark Dominik weighs in after Josh Freeman’s re-emergence.

The gloves have come off. Not all the way, but they’re getting there.

Former Bucs rockstar general manager Mark Dominik was pressed to answer the question, “What went wrong with Josh Freeman?” (more…)

Crab-legs-stealing, BB-gun-shooting, obscenity-hollering, Heisman-Trophy-winning, former national champion Jameis Winston, the pride of Florida State University, continues to look like a much better quarterback prospect than Mike Glennon.

It’s Joe’s daily nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback ever to wear No. 5 in the state of Florida. (more…)

A drunk in a bar couldn’t have picked a worse draft than what the Bucs did in 2007, highlighted by DE Gaines Adams.

With the draft less than four weeks away, it is hard to think about anything else. Especially when the Bucs are hurting more for a quarterback than any team in the NFL — and the best one, Jameis Winston, is there for the taking. (more…)

Video on NFL.com and other websites shows Buccaneers defensive line coach Joe Cullen running workouts at the University of Washington Pro Day this week.

The last time Joe saw Cullen run a pro day, it was at Georgia Tech last year. Soon after, Tampa Bay signed Georgia Tech defensive lineman Euclid Cummings as an undrafted free agent. (more…)

Miami has embraced Josh Freeman

Last year, when former Buccaneers franchise quarterback Josh Freeman signed in the spring with the New York Giants, things felt differently than when Freeman signed with the Dolphins on Thursday.

The Dolphins seem to giving the Freeman the full team embrace. (more…)

50 and counting

Crab-legs-stealing, BB-gun-shooting, obscenity-hollering, Heisman-Trophy-winning, former national champion Jameis Winston, the pride of Florida State University, continues to look like a much better quarterback prospect than Mike Glennon.

It’s Joe’s daily nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback ever to wear No. 5 in the state of Florida. (more…)

Flexibility.

Have your read this year that the Bucs have a subpar offensive line? You have? Surprising, no?

And that underperforming (Joe is in a nice mood) line is worse than when we last saw it at the Den of Depression.

Left tackle Anthony Collins was jettisoned and right guard Oniel Cousins is gone. So the Bucs have two big holes to fill. (more…)

A guy who coached Eli Manning and Drew Bledsoe thinks about those stud quarterbacks when he watches Jameis Winston.

Joe is talking about longtime offensive guru Kevin Gilbride, now retired after many years calling plays for Manning in New York. (more…)

For Bucs fans losing sleep over the team not having a bruising fullback on the roster, you may relax now. It appears the Bucs have signed one. (more…)